return of suspense at an undecided end to the season

On June 23, Max Verstappen won the Spanish Grand Prix, driving his Red Bull; his seventh success in ten races. At this moment, the three-time reigning Dutch world champion has 219 points in the drivers’ standings, 69 more than his runner-up, the Briton Lando Norris. Difficult, then, to imagine anyone other than him to win at the end of the season.

Six races from the end of the 2024 Formula 1 championship, the gap has however been reduced to 52 units. One hundred and seventy-four points will still be distributed, including part at the United States Grand Prix in Austin (Texas), Sunday October 20. After two exercises outrageously dominated by Max Verstappen, the coronation will this time be played out between four men.

Max Verstappen, a champion under pressure

Leader of the world championship, with 331 points, Max Verstappen is going through a delicate period. The Batavian, who is aiming for a fourth consecutive title – a performance achieved, between 2017 and 2020, by the British Lewis Hamilton – has not won a single race for almost four months (the Spanish Grand Prix).

Little or no help from his teammate, the Mexican Sergio Pérez, eighth in the drivers’ standings, with 144 units, the Dutchman no longer has the best car in the field. Red Bull has seen notable departures of key members in recent months – its star engineer, Adrian Newey, for example, signed with Aston Martin – in the context of the Christian Horner affair, the team boss, cleared of ‘an accusation of “inappropriate behavior” towards an employee. The Austrian structure remains in eight Grands Prix without a victory. This hasn’t happened since 2020.

“We went from a very dominating car to an undriveable car in the space of six to eight months”explained Max Verstappen after the Italian Grand Prix, at Monza, on 1^is september. Since then, McLaren has taken the lead in the constructors’ standings, and its driver Lando Norris, an easy winner in Singapore, scored his third success this season. Under pressure heading into the final sprint, 27-year-old Max Verstappen said early retirement could not be ruled out.

Lando Norris, an ami devenu principal rival

Off the track, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris have never hidden their friendship. However, the two men are now rivals. A collision during the Austrian Grand Prix in June forced the Briton to retire while the Red Bull driver took fifth place. Since then, the 24-year-old native of Bristol (England) has reversed the trend, driven by a McLaren that has become irresistible.

Author of his third success, in his career and of the season, in Singapore, with more than twenty seconds ahead of Max Verstappen, the young man, appreciated by the paddock for his talent and his character, climbed eleven times on the podium since the start of the season.

A member of the British manufacturer’s young driver program since 2017, he was promoted to the elite in 2019, alongside Spaniard Carlos Sainz. Regularly at the forefront at the end of last season (seven podiums), he finds himself for the first time in this position of title contender.

Charles Leclerc, a paradoxical season

Monegasque Charles Leclerc, third in the drivers’ standings, with 245 points, is experiencing, like his Ferrari single-seater, a season of ups and downs. Announced as Max Verstappen’s main rival at the start of the season, thanks to promising winter tests, Leclerc marked time at the start of the summer, between the Canadian Grand Prix, on June 9, and that of Great Britain, on July 7. In four races, he only scored 12 points, leaving the Dutchman to fly away, and Lando Norris to pass him in front.

The fact remains that its 2024 season is already successful. The 26-year-old took his first victory at home, in Monaco, in May. A success as resounding as that which he had gleaned on the lands of the Scuderia, in Monza (Italy), more than two months later. “These are the two races that have made me dream since I was littlesaid the 2022 world vice-champion. But a season is more than two races. »

The fifth place obtained in Singapore, more than sixty seconds behind the winner, Lando Norris, did not reassure Charles Leclerc. “We have always said that we have to be careful not to have false expectations, because McLaren always has a better car than us. There are circuits where we will be very close, others where we will be further away”explained the pilot. Ferrari, third in the constructors’ championship, 34 points behind Red Bull and 75 behind McLaren, hopes to play spoilsport at the end of the championship.

Oscar Piastri, a novice full of ambitions

For his second season in Formula 1, Oscar Piastri won two victories, in Hungary and Azerbaijan. The 23-year-old Australian, champion at the end of his first year in Formula 3, in 2020, before winning the Formula 2 title a year later, has progressed this season, repeatedly worrying his teammate at McLaren, Lando Norris . To the point that the English team announced, on the sidelines of the Baku Grand Prix, to favor the position of the Briton to the detriment of the Melbourne native in order to maximize its chances in the title race against Max Verstappen.

Fourth in the world championship, with 237 units, Oscar Piastri, finishing in the top three seven times this season, showed that he could compete with the best elements in the paddock if he had good equipment. Thanks to the results of its two drivers – Red Bull suffers from the points deficit scored by Sergio Pérez compared to its leader Max Verstappen – McLaren seems to be heading towards a ninth constructors’ title, the last dating back to 1998. From here to the end of the season, Oscar Piastri will regularly be in contention for a podium, or even a victory, in the event of setbacks for his pit partner, Lando Norris.